Zhao Heng looked at the woman lying inside the cell. At this point, he couldn't care less about clues. He immediately began shaking the cell door, wanting nothing more than to get her out of this godforsaken place as quickly as possible.
He wanted out.
This hellhole wasn't fit for a dog!
But of course, shaking the door wasn't going to open it.
Zhao Heng looked around and quickly spotted a pair of bolt cutters nearby. He immediately rushed over.
...He couldn't wait any longer.
"Hey, hey, wake up."
He cut through the iron chain locking the cell door.
Zhao Heng entered the cell and roughly shook the woman lying there—his character's wife, Mia.
Mia successfully woke up, and she seemed terrified by Ethan's sudden appearance.
But Zhao Heng no longer cared about the NPC's expression. He simply brushed it aside, telling her that he would take her away.
After that, things unfolded just as they had when Lu Xiu came here.
Zhao Heng began following Mia, making his way through the dark and terrifying dungeon until they finally reached the exit she had mentioned.
But the exit had already been sealed shut long ago; there wasn't even a door anymore.
Upon seeing this.
Mia's emotions suddenly spiraled out of control...
"What kind of psycho is this?"
Zhao Heng watched Mia, who had suddenly become extremely agitated and kept shouting that it was gone, it was gone. Feeling uneasy and confused, he asked, "Hey? Are you okay?"
But Mia ignored him, lay down on the sofa, and stopped moving.
"Hey!"
Zhao Heng hurried over and shook her forcefully again.
But it was useless.
Mia showed no intention of waking up.
"Damn it! What a crappy dungeon!!!"
Zhao Heng's eyes widened. He was genuinely starting to panic.
He was going crazy!
He had never seen such a malicious dungeon!
He thought he had finally figured out how to play it!! Next, he would lead Mia out!! Protect her while they escaped!! Then he could finally leave this godforsaken place too!!
He never expected this idiot NPC!! To just lie down!!
Lie! Down!
What the hell!!!
Zhao Heng's face went pale, then flushed red with anger. In the end, he glanced at the motionless NPC and could only explore the surroundings first.
But just as he walked into another room, Mia's terrified scream suddenly rang out.
By the time Zhao Heng rushed back out in a panic, Mia was gone.
"!!!"
"Where is she!! Where the hell did she go! Are you fucking with me! Screw you!!"
Zhao Heng came out only to find her gone and immediately broke down all over again.
He had finally seen a glimmer of hope that he could escape.
And now she was gone again!
After all, this wasn't a game. Games were frightening enough, but here he was experiencing everything in his Physical Body, surrounded by such an oppressive atmosphere.
The constant psychological pressure.
It truly placed an enormous burden on Zhao Heng's mind.
Zhao Heng desperately wanted to get out!
But no matter how much he cursed in frustration, it wasn't going to bring Mia back.
Zhao Heng could only grit his teeth and search for his wife again.
But after combing through every room that could be opened and cursing the whole way, he still couldn't find Mia. With no other choice, he left the dungeon and headed upstairs.
The moment he emerged from the dungeon.
Zhao Heng noticed that, at some point.
Night had already fallen.
The sunlight that symbolized hope was gone.
Not only was it gone, but rain had begun falling outside the house.
Thunder rumbled.
The noisy patter of rain came from outside.
This made the already eerie abandoned house feel even more terrifying.
Suddenly.
From beneath the staircase leading to the second floor, the door that had previously been locked suddenly made a strange sound.
Zhao Heng stood in the gloomy corridor, his expression grim. Listening to the rain outside the pitch-black windows while staring at the door that had made the strange noise, he felt completely unsettled.
What now!
He cursed inwardly. Somewhere along the way, he had completely lost his usual composure.
The main reason was the unknown.
Ever since Zhao Heng became one of his guild's star players, he hadn't pioneered a dungeon in a very long time. Whenever he entered a dungeon, the guild would always prepare detailed information for him beforehand.
He had forgotten what it felt like to pioneer a dungeon alone, and he hadn't experienced this kind of heart-pounding tension in ages.
And the Resident Evil dungeon was simply too well-made. Its atmosphere was excellent, and it was just as good at tormenting people.
"Damn it!"
The rain continued to fall.
Zhao Heng stared at the door that kept making strange noises and listened to the faint rumble of thunder. After standing there for a long while, he finally made up his mind. He stepped forward and turned the doorknob.
Click—
The lock opened.
Beyond the door was a staircase leading downward.
The beam of the flashlight could illuminate only the first few steps. Everything farther down seemed to be swallowed by darkness.
Rain pattered outside as thunder rolled across the sky.
The entire house was unbearably eerie.
Zhao Heng's Adam's apple bobbed.
He tightened his grip on the flashlight and cautiously took a step forward. The soft rustling sound of his footsteps traveled down the staircase, followed by an echo.
Zhao Heng instinctively stopped. After confirming that nothing had happened, he carefully continued downward.
A pitch-black environment.
He didn't know how many steps there were, only that the stairs kept descending.
The flashlight seemed to have a bad connection and began to flicker.
And the farther down he went.
The more muffled the rain and thunder became.
Apart from his footsteps, it felt as though only the sound of his own breathing remained.
The psychological pressure created by the environment caused cold sweat to bead across Zhao Heng's forehead.
And just when his nerves were stretched to their limit.
A sound came from below the stairs... the sound of something crawling.
Zhao Heng stopped dead.
Then.
He saw a pale hand suddenly emerge from the darkness and grip the edge of one of the steps.
Zhao Heng's pupils contracted.
Like some irrational beast, Mia crawled up the stairs on all fours.
Her movements were stiff and unnatural.
How could one describe what Zhao Heng felt at that moment?
It was like the first time audiences saw The Exorcist, watching that little girl crawl down the stairs in a posture no human should ever use.
...Cardiac arrest!
Zhao Heng's mind went blank.
Before he could react.
Mia suddenly raised her head with a roar. She abruptly accelerated, sprang upright almost instantly, and rushed straight into Zhao Heng's face.
That once-beautiful face now looked like a hideous demon.
Zhao Heng's entire body froze. He was too terrified to move, and even his scream became lodged in his throat.
In the next instant.
Mia grabbed him and, as if lifting something weightless, violently hurled him backward.
Bang—
Zhao Heng's feet left the ground, and he slammed hard onto the floor. His bones rattled, his organs churned, and intense pain instantly spread throughout his body.
He let out a low groan... yet it still didn't feel real. It was as though he had fallen into a nightmare, one he would never wake from.
What the hell!
What the hell is this now!
What the hell is going on!
How did things turn into this!
Why is the monster his own wife!
What!!
What kind of development is this!!!
Roaring inwardly, he struggled to slowly get back to his feet.
But the instant he stood up, he saw Mia standing right in front of him, her hideous demonic face only inches away.
"!!!!!"
Zhao Heng's eyes widened, and his breath caught.
And Mia had already raised a kitchen knife and thrust it toward him.
"Ah—"
Zhao Heng's reflexes as a top-tier player finally kicked in. At the critical moment, he raised his left hand to shield his face.
But although he blocked the knife, the blade pierced straight through his left hand.
Zhao Heng let out a miserable howl, then instinctively stepped forward, bent his right leg, and drove his knee hard into Mia's stomach.
Mia doubled over.
But in the next second.
She used her head like a hammer and smashed it into Zhao Heng's stomach, making him stagger backward.
Then she straightened up and raised the knife to stab him again.
"Wait! Wait! Fucking wait!!!"
Zhao Heng grabbed the sharp blade with both hands, desperately stopping its tip from piercing his eye socket. Looking at Mia, who was twisting the handle to torture him, he shouted in complete breakdown, "What the hell is wrong with you!!"
The two remained locked in a stalemate for a while.
Mia's hideous expression slowly changed to confusion. Then, as though waking from a dream, she suddenly pulled the knife free.
After that, she clutched her head in disbelief, as if someone were commanding her to do all of this.
She roared, repeatedly slamming her head against the wall, before collapsing backward, seemingly unconscious.
"..."
With trembling hands, Zhao Heng stared at the scene in utter bewilderment.
Until the intense pain in his palm struck him.
Only then did he snap back to his senses, his face twisting in agony.
What does this mean?!
What the hell does this mean?!
He walked forward a few steps, intending to check what was wrong with Mia.
But the instant he got close.
Mia, as if her body had no bones at all, suddenly sprang up from the floor, twisted Zhao Heng's left hand behind his back, and grabbed his clothes with her other hand.
"Get away from me!"
She roared with a hideous expression and hurled Zhao Heng aside.
Bang—
The wooden boards shattered.
Under the tremendous force, Zhao Heng was violently sent flying. His back smashed into the wooden wall of the corridor, and the rotten boards couldn't withstand the impact at all, bursting apart instantly. He went straight through the wall, rolling into the next room amid flying splinters of wood.
"Cough!!"
Zhao Heng crashed heavily onto the floor, a suffocating pain filling his chest as his vision went dark.
Wooden splinters slowly settled through the air.
And from the corridor, footsteps began approaching.
"!!!"
Zhao Heng immediately propped himself up and struggled to raise his head. On the other side of the hole in the wall, Mia slowly walked in.
She grabbed the kitchen knife embedded in the wall and yanked it out with force.
Crack.
The blade came free along with fragments of wood.
Holding the knife, she once again walked toward Zhao Heng, one step at a time.
"..."
Zhao Heng lay on the floor, his chest rising and falling violently. Watching Mia approach step by step, his heart seemed to stop.
...A certain familiar feeling.
Rose from deep inside him.
A feeling that hadn't appeared in a very long time.
The scene before his eyes suddenly became slightly blurred.
It was as though he had returned to the past.
Back then, he had simply been an ordinary company employee, an otaku, entering a dungeon together with a group of coworkers.
He didn't know what was inside the dungeon.
Nor did he know what would happen inside it.
And in that dungeon, one of his coworkers had his arm chopped off by a monster, blood spraying everywhere.
His legs had gone weak on the spot, and he collapsed onto the ground.
He even... wet his pants in fear.
Right in front of everyone.
Right in front of the female clerk he had secretly liked for two whole years.
That clerk had said nothing.
But that look.
That shocked, disgusted, slightly strange look.
Zhao Heng still remembered it to this day.
Mia's footsteps drew closer. She held the knife in her hand, her face hideous.
Watching Mia approach, Zhao Heng began trembling all over.
At this moment.
He felt as though he were seeing that cowardly version of himself again, becoming that cowardly version of himself once more.
He didn't know what was inside the dungeon.
Most importantly, he didn't know... what would happen in the dungeon!
What the hell is all of this!!!
"Don't, don't, don't!!!!"
"Fuck you!!!"
"What the hell kind of dungeon is this!!!!"
"Ah!!!!"
"..."
The camera slowly pulled back, passing through the boarded-up windows, through the yard where weeds grew knee-high, and through the rusted fence.
In the rain.
The Baker Farm loomed silently, eerie and still.
Lightning flashed across the sky.
For a brief instant, white light illuminated the entire house in a deathly pale glow.
But in the next second.
Darkness swallowed everything once again.
Only miserable screams and broken curses drifted intermittently from the house, mixed with the pounding rain and rolling thunder.
***
If the camera continued pulling back, passing beyond the tree branches bent under the heavy rain.
Then one could see that the rain resembled a thick curtain, shrouding the entire swamp.
If the camera continued rising.
A little higher.
A little farther.
One would discover—
In fact, within this dark swamp, there wasn't just one Baker Farm.
One.
Two.
Ten.
Dozens.
Countless identical farmhouses, like copy-pasted duplicates, were scattered across the vast, dark wetland.
And inside every farmhouse was a player.
Every player who had entered the Resident Evil dungeon at the same time as Zhao Heng had been thrown into this world.
Only—
Everyone's progress was different.
But one thing was the same: every player was breaking down.
Those progressing slowly were still swimming through the dungeon; those progressing quickly already had their left hand nailed to the wall as they watched Mia approach with a chainsaw; and those even farther ahead had already begun playing hide-and-seek with their Father-in-law.
That's right, the unlucky bastards from the Coordination Bureau's Raid Team.
"I'll go back to the dining table!! I'll go back and eat!! I'll eat anything!! I'm begging you!! Stop chasing me!! I'm only 18!! Please!!!"
A desperate scream rang out from one of the farmhouses.
The camera continued to retreat.
Countless manors.
Countless houses.
Countless screams.
Rising and falling throughout this stormy night.
The entire swamp.
Was one enormous stage of horror.
And every player who had entered the Resident Evil dungeon was breaking down at this very moment.
***
forum.
The appearance of an S-rank Folk Dungeon in the Dungeon Library had already become common knowledge, and posts discussing it could be seen everywhere.
After all, half a day had already passed since the dungeon was revealed.
People had even begun asking whether any big shots had cleared it yet and what the rewards were like.
However, most of those inquiry posts received no replies, and even when they did, they were usually nothing but clickbait.
Until.
A post like this appeared—
【That Dungeon Architect named Lu Xiu! You're really not a good person!! Is the dungeon you made even for humans to play!?】